USB Headphone amp

1

Hi,


I am trying to play sounds via a USB headphone amp by PsychPortAudio. Currently, the USB headphone amp is connected to a laptop (Windows) with a builtin speaker. I checked audio devices by 'GetDevices' command in PsychPortAudio, and it seems that there are some devices related to the USB headphone amp. However, when I chose those devices, sounds were heard from the builtin speaker, but not from a headphone connected to the USB amp. I saw some conversations regarding USB sound cards, but I would like to know if PsychPortAudio can control USB headphone amps.


Thank you very much for your support in advance.


Masayuki


2

Hi,


Thank you very much for the immediate response.


Here is the output of psychtoolbox. Two devies are detected, but both of them generate sounds from built-in speaker, but not from headphones attached to the USB amp.



#####################################################################################

PTB-INFO: Using specially modified PortAudio engine, based on offical version: PortAudio V19-devel WITH-DIM

Will use ASIO enhanced Portaudio driver DLL. See Psychtoolbox/PsychSound/PortAudioLICENSE.txt
for the exact terms of use for this dll.


Disclaimer: "ASIO is a trademark and software of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH."
PTB-Warning: Although using the ASIO enabled Psychtoolbox sound driver,
PTB-Warning: could not find any ASIO capable soundcard in your system.
PTB-Warning: If you think you should have an ASIO card, please check your
PTB-Warning: system for properly installed and configured drivers and retry.
PTB-Warning: Read "help InitializePsychSound" for more info about ASIO et al.
 
Device ID: 2
HostAudioAPIId: 2
HostAudioAPIName: MME
DeviceName: Microsoft Sound Mapper - Output
NrInputChannels: 0
NrOutputChannels: 2
LowInputLatency: 0.2
HighInputLatency: 0.4
LowOutputLatency: 0.2
HighOutputLatency: 0.4
DefaultSampleRate: 44100



PTB-INFO: New audio device with handle 0 opened as PortAudio stream:
PTB-INFO: For 1 channels Playback: Audio subsystem is MME, Audio device name is Microsoft Sound Mapper- Output
PTB-INFO: Real samplerate 8192.000000 Hz. Input latency 0.000000 msecs, Output latency 125.000000 msecs.
 

Device ID: 3
HostAudioAPIId: 2
HostAudioAPIName: MME
DeviceName: SigmaTel Audio
NrInputChannels: 0
NrOutputChannels: 2
LowInputLatency: 0.2
HighInputLatency: 0.4
LowOutputLatency: 0.2
HighOutputLatency: 0.4
DefaultSampleRate: 44100



PTB-INFO: Using specially modified PortAudio engine, based on offical version: PortAudio V19-devel WITH-DIM
PTB-INFO: New audio device with handle 0 opened as PortAudio stream:
PTB-INFO: For 1 channels Playback: Audio subsystem is MME, Audio device name is SigmaTel Audio
PTB-INFO: Real samplerate 8192.000000 Hz. Input latency 0.000000 msecs, Output latency 125.000000 msecs.

#####################################################################################



The headphone amp is "HEAD acoustics PEQ V", which can be controlled by its software "HED Analyzer Artemis S". I'm not sure if  'GetDevices' command in PsychPortAudio detects the headphone amp.


By the way, Matlab version is R2012b, and OS is Windows XP Professional version 2002 service pack 2.



It would be great if someone has experiences with the above setup.


Thank you very much for your support.


Best reagards,



Masayuki








3
Our driver doesn't detect your thing, whatever that thing is, if it isn't listed in PsychPortAudio('GetDevices'). The manufacturer decided wisely to put all useful info behind some password protected website, because that's apparently what customer friendliness is. But from the Google summary i could see, it apparently needs some USB drivers installed, so maybe you are missing some drivers? Or maybe there is some audio mixer control GUI somewhere which allows to set that headphone thing as default output device?

With only MME exposed as audio backend, PsychPortAudio's control will be very limited and audio timing precision or latency will be miserable and all kinds of bugs can happen for anything but the most trivial audio playback. You do need an ASIO capable soundcard and driver for proper control on Windows. Also WindowsXP is very outdated and not really tested or officially supported by us anymore.

Good luck,
-mario